


Nygma's Nightmare

by Strewn_Limbs



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Ed gets a turn to save the day, Ed gets shot with fear toxin, Ed's fright night, Gotham City - Freeform, Inspired by 4x17 promo theories, M/M, Nygmobblepot, may not be right but it would've been fun to see, murder boyfriends, this felt fun to try
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-20 21:46:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,089
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14270205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Strewn_Limbs/pseuds/Strewn_Limbs
Summary: Oswald is held against his will, watching as Ed breathes in Crane's fear toxin.When Ed sees his greatest fear replayed for him, he must fight to regain control of his own mind.Fortunately it's two-on-one and those odds are favorable.





	Nygma's Nightmare

Penguin was left to stand on the sidelines as Ed faced Scarecrow with narrowed eyes, Firefly with a flamethrower on the crime boss in order to prevent any sudden moves. Butch, however, could care less if the RiddleBoy ended up more insane from the gas, he had enough problems from Riddler. If he got what was coming to him, even better of a day for him.

Oswald didn’t want to let the gas hit his boyfriend, but if he made a move, so did Firefly. And it did Martin no good if both of them were dead. He and Ed had already made a pact. One of them had to be alive for the boy, if it came down to life or death one of them had to live through the event to make sure the orphan boy was taken care of. 

If they had to lose each other… that was simply something they would have to handle on their own. Such was the life of a criminal, they weren’t destined to live forever, though one might think otherwise in Gotham. It was the precaution one had to take, regardless.

“You don’t need to do this. There are plenty of test subjects around, I’m certain we could collect several and-”

“That’s enough blathering.” Scarecrow cut off Oswald again, holding up the toxin canister, the hidden smile behind the mask was obvious. One could hear it in his tone that he was more than happy to have his new play thing. “Edward Nygma is not like other people, I need to see how he’ll react. I must… I must know his fears.” With a push of a button the gas was released in Ed’s face, causing the man in green to cover his face out of natural reaction, flinching back as his body took in the toxin.

The chemicals hit his brain in a matter of moments, the drifting away feeling quite familiar to Ed. It felt like when he met the Riddler the first few times, after that it had been more real than a disturbed dream. It felt like when he made those pills to see Oswald again, when he tricked his brain to creating the man he thought he killed. It didn’t feel dissimilar. 

“Tell me, Mr. Nygma. What do you fear most?” Scarecrow questioned as Ed dropped to his knees, crouching in front of the bespectacled man. It was the last thing of reality that Edward took in before he was embraced entirely by the nightmare he was pushed into. 

 

_He blinked heavily, trying to make out what was happening in a place he knew. The manor. Penguin’s manor. ...Oswald’s manor. Well, it was his manor now as well in a sense. Edward stood up slowly, looking around the empty room, hearing a hobbled set of feet walking off in the distance. “Oswald…?” He called out, looking in the direction of the kitchen, walking forward towards the noise. Why wasn’t he already there with him? Where was he going?_

 

Crane followed behind Edward as the man walked off, dragging his feet out of the dining room and into the hall, curious to see what it was Edward saw. For now it was a grey setting of the home they were in, gentle rain pattered on the windows, the weather bright but overcast. Interesting. How very, very interesting.

Oswald took an automatic step forward, instantly getting jabbed by the end of Firefly’s flamethrower, swallowing deeply before settling back into position. What Ed’s greatest fear was with him… he specifically had no idea. He remembered when he was hit with the gas, the nightmare Ed that was conjured before him… and that was only a prototype compared to what Crane had been concocting since then. How this would affect his lover’s already sometimes fragile mind, he wasn’t sure. 

 

_“Oswald? Are you home?” Edward attempted to call out again, hands moving up for fingers to rub his eyes beneath his glasses. “Ozzie?” Even after his eyes reopened it left his vision no less blurred. It was like any time he took off his glasses, it felt disorienting. Nothing… felt right. Something was wrong._

_**“Because it is.”** _

_Edward whipped around, not seeing the source of the voice near him, but the limping footsteps stopped ahead of him. Just beyond the doorway at the top of a staircase. For some reason the passageway got smaller as it approached the doorway, the stairs pushing close to the ceiling to a bright area. It was just large enough for him to fit through so Ed ascended the stairs then moved onto his knees to crawl beyond it, crawling out from beneath pallets stacked on the side of a pier. How did he even get here…? This… No, he must’ve drove or… something… something was off._

_**“Because it is.”** _

_Ed spun around again, seeing a flicker of something in his peripherals before he caught sight of Oswald standing at the end of the pier, staring out into the waters alone. “...Oswald…” The lanky man proceeded ahead, jogging softly to the man he knew though his feet felt numb along the way. Like a newborn giraffe he was all limbs but his coordination didn’t seem right. “Oswald, why did you come here?”_

_“You brought me here, Ed.”_

_He did? Hm, he guessed he must’ve, but why? “I thought we agreed never to come out here again.” He recalled that from the other day, head hurting any time he took in Oswald beside him. Normally Ozzie couldn’t give him this much of a migraine unless he was throwing a tantrum._

_“That’s what I thought too, Ed. Still, you brought me back here. You just couldn’t be happy, could you?”_

_“Couldn’t… what? No, I am happy. We are happy.”_

_Oswald shook his head sadly, bending forward slightly with a heavy breath. “No… I was happy, Ed. You lied to me. You killed me, Ed. You’ve hated me from the beginning.” The smaller man claimed, hand moving to clutch at his stomach, groaning in pain._

_“I… no… I mean… Yes, I did… I did kill you, I shot you.” He felt an inner turmoil, a fight brewing, but it only made his head hurt worse to think about. “You… but you lived, I… I saw, you were real.”_

_**“He was real.”** _

_“You killed me, Ed. That was it. I never came back, you killed me. You’ve been creating more illusions of me. You killed me, Edward Nygma! You killed me and your guilt manifested in another headcase reaction!” Oswald yelled, shoving at Ed with a blood soaked hand._

_The bloody print had Ed glancing from down to up and back again, something… he… he did shoot Penguin. So what was this? If he imagined Penguin why was he coming back here now? Was this a guilt induced dream? Did he keep taking those pills? Was he overdosing? Ed called out in pain, clutching at his head as Oswald tsked in front of him._

_“Really, Ed. I thought you loved me. ...I thought… you loved…” Oswald’s voice trailed off, the well-dressed man stumbling backward with his damaged leg buckling underneath him, sending him off the edge of the pier and into the water._

_“Oswald!!”_

 

Penguin could hear Ed yelling from upstairs, could hear him calling out in distress. Yelling out his name. Although flattering as it was that he was apart of Ed’s greatest fear, he could only imagine what it was the other was seeing. Crane was going to pay dearly for this. Deeply and truly he would know what a real fear was when Oswald C. Cobblepot was done with him! This whole Quintuple of Chaos, this Group of Horribles, whatever they were to be called was going to feel his wrath a thousand times over!

Jerome could see Penguin seething, the chuckle prone man approaching with a skip to his step, holding a gun to Oswald’s throat. “You gettin’ any funny ideas, bird brain? You might’ve beaten me the last time, but trust me, I’m wise to your prison fight tricks now. You won’t get me in that cage with you twice.” He laughed aloud in Oswald’s face, ready and willing to kill the crime boss meant to be a cohort in his scheme. 

 

_Ed stared over the edge of the pier into the water, watching as best he could as Penguin’s body disappeared below the surface, everything still seeming out of focus to him._

“Just look at what you’ve done, Edward. You destroyed the man you loved. You killed him.”

_A second voice floated into his head, confusing him further. Ed feeling a splitting migraine begin to form in the center of his mind. It spread from his brain stem to the back and then over his cranium to the front, making the lights outside seem twice as bright, made the waves twice as loud, made everything feel fake._

_**“Because it is.”** _

“You could’ve been better to him, Edward. You could’ve had the life you always wanted. He would’ve seen to it. He would’ve given you everything you ever wanted, if only you asked. If only you accepted his love.”

_Ed clutched at his head, wanting to tear his hair out. What was wrong with him?! Eughhh…! It felt like an elephant stampede at a disco, it was intolerable. And this other voice. This unfamiliar voice cutting in. What was wrong?! All of it was wrong!_

_**“BECAUSE IT IS.”** _

_The original voice became too much, screaming at him now and adding to the sensory overload. Someone ostracizing him for his stupidity. Yet the second voice was there to calm him, give him options._

“You can make it up to him Edward, just lean forward.”  
“Go to the end of the pier and lean ahead.”  
“Join him, Edward.”  
“Show him you could save him.”  
“Save him.”  
“Help him, Edward.”  
“You can still be happy, you just have to jump for him.”  
“You can have your peace together.”  
“Make it up to him, jump and save him from your misdeeds.”

_Ed looked over the edge of the pier again, tempted to push himself forward. It wasn’t too late, the average depth of water around a shipping pier even when at its deepest was about thirty feet. If he could figure the perfect diving angle, he may be able to get down and back up in time to-_

_**“If you kill us for nothing, you’ll be the most memorable idiot in history.”** _

_Ed’s hands gripped the end of the pier, his head leaning up to see Riddler flashing in and out of existence close to him. “You… you’re here. When I shot him… No… you shot him. I… I wasn’t here. It was you!”_

_**“Correct, Eddie. You’ve gotten two things right so far.”** _

_The owner of the original voice smiled to his sweeter self, crouching down to have a talk to the Ed on the end of the pier. “How… I shouldn’t be here. This should be you. I didn’t do this. This is wrong.”_

_**“It’s not real, Eddie-boy. None of this is real. By now you should know a fake when you see it. Have I not taught you anything, you imbecile? Would Penguin blame you for his death? Even if you directly caused it, that lovable annoyance could still hardly blame you. What he told me on the end of the pier that day was far from what this conniving trickster would have you believe he said. It’s not real. None of this is real.”** _

“What…? Who are you? What are you doing here?” Crane took in what was normally an internal monologue, two of the same men dressed slightly different chatting back and forth. He could see the second man becoming more clear as Ed began to flicker in the scenario, able to witness first hand in the transition when Ed was no longer Edward. The man in the green suit and the bowler hat, the man with the confident stance and the winning smile. This was… this was the man he was testing on, but… he was now someone entirely different. “You’re not apart of this experiment! Where… Where is Mr. Nygma?!”

_**“Guess you should’ve done more research, Crane. I am Nygma. I am… The Riddler.”** _

_Ed watched as Riddler took over, letting himself go and earning almost immediate relief to his migraine. The more ruthless version of himself grabbing Crane from his barely existent place in the nightmare world, pulling the mad scientist into plain view as the sky began to clear and the sun began to set. The rain stopped and Ed’s pain dulled to a cruel headache now that he was in the backseat of his body._

_Crane… The Scarecrow. The man who created a toxin to attack the brain, to produce one’s fear. It_ began to make sense. It was _starting to feel less_ like a dream. Still it hurt. It hurt _him. It hurt his_ head. Everything that _blurred began to come into_ focus once more. _Scarecrow wasn’t there before, but_ he supposed… maybe the Riddler had seen him the entire time.

“No…! You shouldn’t be able to break it! You haven’t faced your fear!” Scarecrow claimed, struggling in Riddler’s clenched hands, fighting against the pull of the also gangly man. Unfortunately for Crane, Edward’s frame had a bit more bulk on it, giving him an advantage.

Riddler didn’t need to face Ed’s fear. His fears were not the same as his softer counterpart. He knew now he could break the chemical stimuli in the brain simply by injecting enough reality into Ed to create doubt, taking over when the toxin reactions weakened. If he stepped in while the toxin was still in full effect, no doubt it would adapt to his brain pattern and project his fears instead. For once being stuffed into the same body as someone else paid off.

“Spooky, I’ve got a **question for you. In the wrong family I may look ugly, when** grown I show new clothes smugly. I can be forward, **backward, reverse, and inward. Incorrect** form and you’d be injured. What **am I?”**

“Are you… Are you asking me a riddle…?” He questioned, pulling back on Ed’s grip but the taller man directed him to the edge of the fading pier. 

“Are you… Are you giving up?” Riddler mocked, chuckling as he positioned Crane exactly where he wanted him. Crane couldn’t help but try and stick closer to Ed now, grabbing at the man’s suit jacket, but was shoved backwards before his fingers could get a full clutch of fabric. “It’s a swan dive!” He called to the other villain falling from his ledge, Scarecrow turning in the air to face the _water_ he approached of gravity’s will. The scene finally broke when Scarecrow impacted with the ground. Riddler could see himself on the third story of the manor, standing on the edge of the roof. He looked down to see Crane laying in the garden, either dead or unconscious he was unsure of but at the moment that wasn’t his issue. 

He scoffed, turning around to find his way off the shingles, letting himself back into the manor through an open window. “Some fear toxin that was. Even a child could see that it was all just fiction. A trick of the mind. What a maroon.” Riddler laughed about the failed attempt to lie to him, moving on inside the home to get to his daring rescue of Ozzie from whatever was going on downstairs.

 

Oswald flinched when a dull _thump_ could be heard outside the window. No one looking in time to see what, or rather who, had fallen but he had a reasonable idea of who it was. He’d only caught the shadow in the corner of his eye, but that’s where Crane had lead Ed. His Ed. ...They killed him and for that they were going to pay with their lives.

Jerome’s head stayed forward for a moment, the sound outside triggering his funny bone as he began to laugh aloud. “Oh Crane you old dog, you’ve gone and done it this time! Hahaha! Oooh, you’ve gotta be mad about that one, eh ol’ Pengy?” Jerome teased the seething man in front of him, waving the gun in Penguin’s face. “You’re gonna pop that blood vessel if you’re not careful!” He grinned, cocking the gun, placing the barrel between Penguin’s eyes and pulled the trigger.

Oswald flinched again when the bang went off, but didn’t feel himself fall. Should he if he was shot in the face? Shouldn’t it just be over instantly? Should he feel dead? He’d felt near death before, several times actually, so the actual feeling of being dead was still foreign to him. Even being near death honestly didn’t feel much different than being alive.

“Pop, goes the penguin!” Jerome laughed again, clutching his sides and missing Penguin opening his eyes to take note of the flag sticking out of the gag gun. The deranged young man humming _pop goes the weasel_ as he enjoyed his teasing. 

Penguin rolled his eyes, looking over the present crew and ready to start an all out war there, despite the fire gun being held against his chest. This, however, was the last straw! As if killing Ed wasn’t enough, following it with this torture only incurred his wrath further. “I will make sure to personally end each and every one of you here!” He called out, pausing to glance at Butch. “Except you, Butch, you are still my friend and we will find your cure.” Penguin just had to be sure that was still a clear deal. “You three however, are dead once I get ahold of you and I will have vengeance!” 

Oswald was ready for a war, he was more than prepared to go after the three psychopaths in order to have his revenge.

“Now, now Ozzie. No need for that.” A smooth voice entered the dining room, Riddler strutting in as confident as ever. “Miss me?” He questioned Penguin from across the room with a cocky smile and a raised brow, smoothing over his lapels with his hands.

“He…” Firefly paused, her eyes going wide for a long moment as she realized what was going on. “You threw Scarecrow off the roof!” She exclaimed, now afraid to look out of the window knowing that Crane’s body was lying in the garden just outside. “You’ll pay for that.” 

Jerome held up a hand to her, grinning in his menacing manner at Riddler before stomping his feet on the ground. “Get him, boy!” He called, the room hearing fingers snapping rhythmically as Tetch left his hiding corner to approach Nygma from behind. The man having been in waiting since everyone was gathered, just in case someone tried to make a sneaky escape. 

Tetch spun Riddler around, staring him deeply in the eyes, enunciating the beginning of each word drastically, snapping at every first syllable. “Never knowing Nygma, now nears nodding. Sleepy sounds start sounding, slipping simply so-”

Tetch’s alliteration was cut off by a punch to the face, causing the hypnotist to stumble back and clutch his nose in shock. “What? You didn’t even-” A second strike caused the man to fall backwards onto the floor, the man in the green suit picking up a side table from nearby to hit Tetch repeatedly over the head with it. The items from the table falling onto the floor with a crash and flutter, as a vase and several papers found a new home on the lower surface.

“Of course I didn’t fall for it, you nitwit.” Riddler claimed. “What a grade school talent show level of skill. You think you can hypnotise a mind like mine?” Perhaps he could hypnotise dim witted Eddie, but him? Not a chance! He could see through a something so pathetic in an instant. “Cute party trick, but I’ve seen it before.” Riddler faced the few left in the room. “Would anyone else like to pit their mind against mine? It seems to be a running theme tonight.” 

Penguin couldn’t help but to laugh, finding it humorous to take in the failings of the two greatest _mind control_ villains that had begun to pop up recently. “You see how foolish you were to think you could control him? Do you see the fatal errors you all have made here today?” He claimed, finding himself victorious for simply being on Edward’s side despite his still precarious position. “Your precious geniuses were nothing in the face of true brilliance.” Oswald pointed at Riddler, not caring how smug it made the other later, for the moment he got to be the one to rub it in everyone else’s faces. And he’d take that time to gloat to the fullest extent that he could. 

Riddler buffed his nails on his suit jacket, looking at them briefly with a long, Cheshire-like smile. “Well, when facing off against an all-star cast of morons like this, how challenging could it be?” He declared, entirely full of himself, studying the rest of the situation. 

Jerome was going to be tricky, but Firefly they only needed to dismantle her-

“I give up!” Jerome claimed, hands in the air while his eyes locked onto Riddler’s. “You win, mighty brain man.” He nodded at Firefly to do the same, though reluctantly the woman dropped her flamethrower, raising her hands to follow orders. “Boy, we’d be in a whole other fight if I’d actually brought real bullets for this thing. Or a real gun.” Jerome laughed full-heartedly, hands still above his head as he leaned back, howling loudly. “Maybe next time we’ll get’cha.” He threatened, moving his hands down to finger guns, shooting Ed four times in the torso with his hands. “ _Bang, bang, bang, bang!_ Next time.” He promised, grabbing Firefly and running out of the manor with her, taking off to escape the scene.

“That was… stupid.” Butch finally spoke, taking in the scene around him. “I guess we can finally move onto getting me Doctor Strange, huh?” 

Penguin merely shrugged, not sure what to make of it either. It felt foreboding though… Jerome was not one to make a promise without living up to it somehow. It was unsettling to think the maniac would now have a target on Ed’s back. “Butch, can you… find a place to dump Tetch and Crane’s body? Anywhere far from here will do, once they’re handled we’ll move onto finding you Strange.” Oswald promised, allowing his mind to run several different scenarios of possible things Jerome could come up with but the young man was insane to a degree he could barely begin to comprehend. 

Whatever he planned, it wouldn’t be good. It would be a game of waiting, or they would need to strike first. Defeat Jerome and secure Ed’s safety. 

Riddler moved closer to Penguin as Butch left the dining room to collect the bodies of the intruders, taking the two skinny men under one arm before proceeding to walk away with them off the property. The man in the green suit slid up to Oswald’s side, looking over the smaller man with greedy eyes. “You didn’t answer the question. Did you miss me?” 

“I missed you a fair amount, but any more praise and I’m sure that giant head of yours will rupture.” Penguin assumed Riddler’s fortitude and increased will power gave him more to fight with when it came to the mind control themed tactics Tetch and Scarecrow typically used. If Ed couldn’t be entirely taken over because of his other half then it was a good thing his personality broke some time ago. At least Riddler was there to guard what Ed couldn’t. “Thank you, for helping him.” 

“I need him as much as you do.” Riddler admitted, knowing full well that without Ed he would go rampant with his own brand of evil without rest. Ed brought him just enough balance to know when to stop, to take in his success, and when to let things cool off to plan the next heist or trick. He wasn’t overly fond of the weakling, but Ed had his moments of usefulness. “Now, how about we go plan our revenge while that ignoramus walks those two to the other side of Gotham?”

Penguin already had several ideas in mind, taking Riddler by the hand to tug him towards the study upstairs. By the time Butch returned he was sure they could get in a little more than a simple revenge scheme.


End file.
